Usuario:Davius/Taller

Extensive list of languages

It is known that more than 60 languages were spoken in the lands that once formed part of Roman Empire. The process of Romanization in the lands of Roman Empire involved an historical language shift that led to the desaparition of great number of autochthonous languages across southern Europe. Nevertheless, this process spread for centuries, being bilingualism, even multilingualism, very common at less in the first centuries.

Most languages in the European part of the Empire were of Indo-European origin (mainly of the Anatolian, Germanic, Italic and Graeco-Armenian groups). In addition, there were some number of pre-Indo-European languages such as Aquitanian, Tyrsenian languages whose main languages was Etruscan. In North Africa and Near East, there were presence of some branches of Afroasiatic (Berber, Egyptian, and Semitic).

The following table contains a list of languages spoken in different parts of Roman Empire (in different moments; Green color represents Indo-European languages, Yellow: Afroasiatic, Pink: Classified and pre-Indoueropean, ):

Classification		Language	Comments	Province/ Territory
Anatolian	Lydians	Lydian	Documented in about 60 inscriptions.	Lydia
	Lycian-Luwian	Lycian	Well documented in about 150 inscriptions, main non-Greek language in South Anatolia. Related to ancient Luwian.	Lycia
		Carian	Documentend in some inscriptions, poorly known.	Caria
		Isaurian	Poorly known, there are some inscriptions, it survived until 5th BC	Isauria
	Pisidic-Sidetic	Pisidian	There are about 30 de inscriptions.	Pisidia
		Sidetic	Poorly known, there are only 6 inscriptions from Side (Pamphylia).	Side
	Other	Mysian	Poorly known, one possible inscription.	Mysia
		Ancient Cappadocian	Poorly known, it survived until 6th BC	Capadocia
Celtic	Hispano-Celtic	Gallaecian	Documented only toponyms and anthroponyms.	Hispania
		Celtiberian	Documented in many inscriptions.	Hispania
	Gallic Celtic	Gaulish	There are many inscriptions in Greek-like alphabet, possibly there were several different dialects. It was spoken until the 5th century	Gallia
		Galatian	It was originated in the migration of Gallic peoples to Anatolia in 3rd century BC	Galatia (Turkey)
		Noric		Noricum (Austria, Eslovenia)
	Insular Celtic	Brittonic	Antecessor of modern Welsh, Cornic, Cumbric and Breton.	Britania
	Other	Lepontic	Documented in about 40 inscriptions, many of them fragmentary.	North of Italia, Gallia
Germanic	Istaevonic	Lingua francorum	In the 8th, it was diversified in different Franconian languages.	North Gallia
	Ingvaeonic	Lingua saxonum	Related to Old Saxon, documented from the 8th century.
		Anglo-Frisian	Spoken by angles which invaded Britania in 5ht century	Britania
	Hermionic	Lombardic	Spoken by Germanic peoples who founded the Kingdom of the Lombards	Germania, Panonia, Italia
		Proto-High German		Germania
	East Germanic	Gothic	Well documented in the Bible of Ulfilas. Ethnic language of visigoths and ostrogoths.	Dacia, Moesia, Italia, Hispania.
		Vandalic	Poorly documented, only indirectly known.	Gallia, Hispania, Africa.
		Burgundian	Poorly documented, only indirectly known.	Gallia, Germania.
Graeco-Armenian	Hellenic	Attic Greek	Main Greek language, used as basis for Koine.	Graecia, Egypt, Anatolia
		Aeolic Greek	Greek language of Thesalia, Beocia and some cities, progressively replaced by Koine.	Asia Minor, Thesalia, Boeotia
		Doric Greek	Greek language of Peloponesus and some other cities, antecessor of modern Tsakonian language.	Peloponesus
	Other	Ancient Macedonian	More than 700 words are known, there are a great number of cognates with Greek, although strictly Macedonian is not a Greek language.	Balcanes
		Anient Armenian	Spoken in Roman Armenia, ruled by Roman Empire during some periods.	Armenia
Iranian	Western Iranian	Parthian	Northwest Iranian language, different from Middle Persian.	Parthia
		Middle Persian	Ethnic language used of the Sassanid dynasty in Persia, in public administration mainly Aramaic language was used.	Persia
	Eastern Iranian	Schyto-Sarmatians	Poorly known language, it is known basically from toponyms and proper names. There is a modern descendant Ossetian language.	Scythia, Sarmatia
Italic	Latino-Faliscan	Latin	Main written language in the Empire, used for the general administration and prestigious situations	The whole Empire
		Faliscan	Closedly related to Old Latin.	Latium
		Proto-romance	Colloquial language used across the Empire, in the later centuries.	The whole Empire.
	Oscic	Oscan	Dialectally diverse, well attested.	Italia
		Marrucinian	Attested in a brass inscription.	Italia
		Paelignian	Documented in unas pocas inscriptions.	Italia
	Umbric	Umbrian	Spoken in central Italy, well attested in long inscriptions (Iguvine Tablets) and some other short inscriptions.	Central Italy
		Marsian	Possibly another sabellic language, attested in some few incriptions.	Italia
		Other Sabellic	Among this other language are some poorly attested languages such as: Hernican, vestinian, Aequian, all this languages are attested in inscriptions.	Italia
	Otras	South Picenian	Attested in about 50 inscriptions in East and Central Italy	East Italy
		Sicel	Attested form 5th BC by some few inscriptions, it is not sure that survived the Roman Period, because it was being shifted by Joinic Greek.	Sicilia
Paleo-Balkan		Dacian	Related very likely to proto-Albanian, because the subtrate of Romanian languages seems to be related to Albanian.	Dacia
		Illyrian	No inscriptions are known, only toponyms and proper names, maybte it is related to Messapic.	Illyria
		Messapic	Attested by about 300 inscriptions, maybe it is related to Illyrian	SE of Italia
		Thracian	There are very few inscriptions useful for its classification, that seems clearly Indo-European, althogh a more precisse classification seems difficult.	Thracia
		Paeonian	Poorly known, only anthroponyms and indirect evidences are known.	Paeonia
		Venetic-Liburnian	The language is attested in about inscriptions, clearly an Indo-European language, it is difficult to give a more precise classification	Veneto
Other Indo-European		Lusitanian	Attested in some few inscriptions.	W. of Hispania
Afroasiatic	Berber	Libyan	Related to Eastern Berber languages	Libya
		Numidian	Attested in different inscriptions in Tunicia, related to Northern Berber languages.	Numidia, Mauretania
	Egyptian	Demotic	Descendant of the ancient Egyptian language. It was a colloquial language in Egypt during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.	Egypt
	Semitic	Middle Aramaic	Main language in the most eastern part of the Empire.	Syria, Arabia, Assyria, Mesopotamia
		Assyrian-Babylonian	Late form or Akkadian language used as a written language until the 2th century AD	Assyria, Mesopotamia
		Phoenician-Punic	Languages used in Cartago, Lebanon, and some other cities along the Mediterranean Sea.	Syria, Carthago/Africa
		Classical Hebrew	Used mainly as a lyturgic language, well attested for example in Dead Sea Scrolls and in the Mishna.	Judea
Tyrsenian		Etruscan	Well attested in thousands of inscriptions, extinc c. 1st century AD	Central Italia
		Rhaetic	Language spoken in North Italy, probably related to Etruscan	Italia
		Lemnian	Language spoken in Lemnos and attested in the 5th century BC, no information about its extinction.	Graecia
Isolated or Unclassified languages		Aquitano	Antecessor of modern Basque language, poorly attested.	Hispania, Galia
		Iberian	Possibly different languages or dialects related.	E. of Hispania
		Turdetanian	No attestation although classical authros mention the language. Possibly it is related to Tartessian language.	S. of Hispania
		Ligurian	The language of some toponyms across SE of France	E. Gallia Narbonensis, Liguria
		North Picene	Language attested in 4 inscriptions, it seems a non-Indo-European language, it remains unclassified.	Novilara (Italy)
		Paleo-Sardinian	A language known only in toponyms, poorly kown.	Sardinia
		Camunic	Language of about 170 short inscriptions, dated from 500 BC and 50 CE, using Etruscan alphabet, in Val Camonica.	Valle Camonicum